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Join us this Sunday, February 18 at the Arbutus Fire Hall from 9 am – 3 pm. Admission is FREE! We also have great food on site, serving great breakfast and lunch! Fabulous deals and a wonderful variety of music-related items to be found!

We had a great turnout at our first show of 2018 in January! Janet was seen sporting the new Arbutus Record Show T-shirt (which you can purchase at the show) and her groovy record earrings. Janet and Frank also showed us that they are our favorite sweethearts, doing a little dancing to some tunes provided by our announcer extraordinaire, Derek Shaw.

February means love, celebrating our past presidents and it is also Black History Month. We found some wonderful music that celebrates the great contributions of African Americans to American music history – jazz, soul, blues and pop! Represented are the great ladies of song, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horn and Billie Holiday; The Story of Jazz as written and narrated by celebrated author, Langston Hughes; albums by Sam Cooke, Etta James, and jazz greats Charlie Parker, Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie; 60s supergroup Sly and The Family Stone; and pop all-stars like Prince and the Jacksons on picture discs! Even a fun album by the “greatest” – boxer Cassisus Clay – soon to be known as Muhammad Ali! So come on down and get your groove on this Sunday! See you there!

After our summer break it was fantastic to see so many people at our August show! Fall, football and school have begun and we are back Sunday, September 18th! Admission is always FREE and we are here from 9 am – 3 pm. We also have food service for breakfast and lunch and a 50/50 raffle. The drawing is at noon! As usual there were many wonderful finds and vendors, many coming from near and far, some getting up at 1 am to be there. That is dedication!

Freddie with our own B Derek Shaw

In August we had an extra special treat – a visit from a true, local music legend. It’s been five years since she came to the Arbutus show but Freddie is back! Anyone who lives in the Baltimore/DC area who loves and has collected music over the past 40 years knows this modest, beautiful lady. And if there is anyone who knows anything and everything about music – from soul to jazz to R&B – it’s this lady. Everyone was thrilled to see her and we hope she comes to many more! Thanks to Derek Shaw, we had a chance to talk to her for a bit – although we probably could have spent hours chatting! She’s got great stories to tell and could write a book (and we told her so!) Derek also found one of her old business cards.

The Braxtons are her cousins (Yes, Toni Braxton!) For five years she dated a band member who played with Ray Charles. Her ex played with James Brown for 10 years. Freddie attended every show at the Royal Theatre which was THE place to see the biggest stars in the black entertainment in Baltimore. You name them and she has every autograph of every musician you can think of (such as Nat King Cole, Count Basie). She got to go back stage, sat on Otis Redding’s lap and did errands for James Brown.

Freddie started collecting records in 1957 and became a self-educated student of music. When Road House Oldies opened in Brooklyn just over 40 years ago (sadly it closed but the Silver Spring store is still in operation), Freddie walked in, already an expert and knew more than the owner. She wanted to help and for the first eight years, was not paid “per se.” If anyone had a question about music, Freddie knew the answer.

Working at Road House Oldies was for the love of music. She already had a job at AT&T. Despite a bit of stage fright, she was asked to demonstrate to Japanese and German businessmen how the the first computer chips worked and other advances in technology through the years. She was also a disc jockey on a variety of radio stations starting in 1961 – WNAV, WKHS, WEBB, WSID and WPFD. We are so thrilled that we had the chance to talk to this incredible lady and we hope to see her sweet smile more often!

It has been a long, hot summer and we you hope you have been enjoying crabs, the beach and “dem Os!” The Olympics are almost over and we are so proud of all our Maryland medalists. Excuse the pun, but it must be something in the water!

Arbutus Record Show is ready to rock and roll with wonderful vendors bringing some fabulous new items! Cool off and join us this Sunday, August 21 for some great deals on all your favorite music items. The show is open from 9 am – 3 pm and always FREE! Bring your family, neighbors and friends!

At our June show, one of our favorite long time vendors, “Microdot Man” of MicroDot MindWear, brought 30-40 rare and original, blacklight psychedelic art posters from the late 60s – and they were bought up like crazy! Very popular with bands and the youth culture in the 1960s and early 70s, the posters tried to visually represent the spiritual experiences young people were seeking in a very turbulent era. The style was influenced by curvilinear calligraphy found in Art Nouveau and the bright, intense colors and abstract patterns of of the Pop art movement. Jimi Hendrix, The Grateful Dead, The Who, and Janice Joplin were among the superstars of psychedelic music. For more information on Psychedelia and the Psychedelic movement, go to this link.

Celebrate our last show before the summer break in July (don’t worry, we will be back in August ) and Father’s Day! You can find a special gift of Dad’s favorite music from back in the day or something for yourself that brings back the best memories of your father. Remember the show is always FREE! Visit us from 9 am – 3 pm at the Arbutus Fire Hall. Enjoy great vendors and their expertise in music and collectibles. We also have great food on the premises for purchase and the atmosphere is always fun and friendly for every kind of music lover!

Yours truly just had a treat last night attending the Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band at DC’s Warner Theater. Maybe some of you were there as well. There were true legends up on that stage and they made it clear it was a love fest. The guys get along so well and it shows in their incredible blend as a band. There have been approximately 12 iterations since Ringo started touring with this concept 1989 and it is still going strong. It was hit after hit from the original people who wrote and performed huge chart toppers, and all superstars in their own right. The band members included Todd Rundgren on guitar, Mister Mister’s Richard Page on guitar, Santana’s lead singer Gregg Rolie on keyboards, Toto’s Steve Lukather on guitar (he can stand toe to to with any rock guitarist living), the multitalented Warren Ham on percussion and saxophone, and drummer Gregg Bissonette and of course, the original Beatle – Peace & Love, THE Ringo Starr! Ringo still looks great and sounds great! He was delightful and full of fun, often interacting with the audience. One person even brought a”Ringo Starr for President” sign and he held it up on stage. Each member sang a few songs from their vast repertoire. So many hits, the audience wished they could play them all!

These artists represent three decades of some of the best music ever recorded – from the 60s to the 80s – but the music is timeless and the talent is off the charts! If the band comes around again, it is a must see. In the meantime, we know you can find lots of their music and memorabilia represented at the show this Sunday! In fact, we saw some goodies at our show in May from The Beatles:

It looks like April and May switched weather this year! A rainy, relaxed Sunday is the perfect day to come out and search for all your favorite music treasures. In May, the show always falls on a special fourth Sunday instead of our usual third Sunday. This year it’s May 22! Time and location are the same: 9 am – 3pm at the Arbutus Volunteer Fire Department and admission is always FREE! We also have food on site to purchase for breakfast and lunch.

In April, we spoke to one of our favorite longtime vendors, Tom Engle. You can always count on him to find rare and unusual items. This time he brought hard to find 1970s romance comics (Oh the drama, the clothes!), vintage music magazines such Downbeat and Metronome whose great covers were graced with legendary jazz artists such as Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Dizzy and Frank Sinatra.

Tom also had a great collection of picture discs for sale – huge in the 80s – with great art and novelties such as a 3D disc packaged with 3D glasses.

As a collector, Tom loves rockabilly, Baltimore and DC groups, garage bands and novelty instrumentals from the 60s. He even played in some local bands back in the 60s and 70s! Tom started seriously collecting around 1983. Along with joining our record show throughout the year, he also has a booth at the Antique Depot in Ellicott City.

Though fellow vendors and buyers tease him, Tom’s goal in selling records and music memorabilia really is “to find records a good home.” And Tom always delivers! Stop by his booth on Sunday!

Spring has finally arrived! Join us this Sunday for our April 17th show at the Arbutus Fire Volunteer Fire Department for tons of music collectibles and deals from our vendors. The show is always FREE with breakfast and lunch offered for sale as you peruse the many booths filled with treasures and great finds. We are open from 9 am -3 pm and look forward to seeing you there!

Our pre-Easter holiday show last month was hoppin’ with a great crowd and some interesting finds. “Bunnies” could be found as well as soundtracks to some childhood TV favorites, Beatles and a whole lot of KISS imports. Russ Katz came with his company, The Vinyl Revivers. He explained and demonstrated the clever system he created to clean those precious vinyl records.

Snow on Sunday? Say it isn’t so and come on out to our March show at the Arbutus Fire Hall. Always FREE and great bargains and finds galore! Last month, there was a huge turnout. In honor of Black History Month and Valentine’s, there was a whole lotta love and soul to be found, from every era and all forms of media – records, books, DVDs and more – representing some of America’s best from jazz to pop! See you this Sunday, 9 am – 3pm. You never know what music treasures you will find!